Whenever I read about mailboxes I always think it sounds so complicated! I think I'd worry about mail being stolen if I left it in there for a postman to collect. I'm really glad we just have letterboxes in our front doors here. If you want to post something you stick it in a postbox on the street (they're dotted around all over the place), like this:

If a letter/parcel is too big to go through the letterbox they'll knock on the door and hand it to you, and if you're out they put a card through the door and you can pick it up from your local sorting office the following day.

If it's being delivered they'll knock on the door and if you're not in they take it to the sorting office, leaving you a card with a reference number on it through the letterbox. You can then collect it the next day from the sorting office when you produce the card (you have to take some ID with you). If you're sending a parcel you take it to the post office.

As for posties picking up mail, no they don't here. But Australia Post requires mailboxes to be locked (or at least fastened securely) and will send you a note if they are not like that.

Most US freestanding mailboxes look like these (only blue). Personally, I don't like leaving my mail out for the mailman to take, I'm always afraid some is going to steal it. I'd rather just take it to a mailbox.

As for posties picking up mail, no they don't here. But Australia Post requires mailboxes to be locked (or at least fastened securely) and will send you a note if they are not like that.

Most US freestanding mailboxes look like these (only blue). Personally, I don't like leaving my mail out for the mailman to take, I'm always afraid some is going to steal it. I'd rather just take it to a mailbox.

We leave envelopes clipped to our mailbox for the mailman to pick up all the time. And I regular leave packages at our door for pick up. We've yet to have an issue with loosing anything. But we live in a pretty low crime area. But there are lots of free standing postal boxes that people can use.

I almost never mail anything from my home mailbox. We had mail thieves in my city several years ago. They figured out how to wash everything but your signature from an outbound check, then fill in their own information. Many of the victims discovered this when the got overdue notices from their home mortgage lender and the altered check showed up in their next bank statement.

I drive past a couple of blue mailboxes on my way to work. They are the drive-up type with a chute on the back set so you can put a letter in the box without getting out of your car.

I almost never mail anything from my home mailbox. We had mail thieves in my city several years ago. They figured out how to wash everything but your signature from an outbound check, then fill in their own information. Many of the victims discovered this when the got overdue notices from their home mortgage lender and the altered check showed up in their next bank statement.

I drive past a couple of blue mailboxes on my way to work. They are the drive-up type with a chute on the back set so you can put a letter in the box without getting out of your car.

I still get inbound mail in my home mailbox.

I would never be worried about someone stealing my mail but I think this is also why cheques have never been as popular here. So much less risk of theft mid-transaction with net banking.

Australia is an even younger country and you rarely hear about people's ancestry unless it's fairly recent. That might be because a lot of our ancestors came here with chains around their ankles.

But you keep (kept) such good records on all of them - at least Tasmania did, one of my ancestors was sent out in 1819 (son who I'm descended from was only 2 and stayed in the UK), there is so much info available on him - what ship, where he was sentenced, height, description, behaviour (ok really not good as he seemed to have spent time trying to work out how to escape. followed on by murdering someone and then getting murdered himself) - far better than UK records from the same time. All I have from the UK is what he was sentenced for and that he received the death penalty (later changed to deportation)

If you leave postage out for the postman, how does the postage get paid?

The same way it gets paid if you put outgoing mail in a public mailbox. I buy a book of stamps - about 16 stamps - a couple times each year. You put the stamp on the envelope before you put it in the mail box.

The US post office does have a "Stamps by Mail" program. You get an order form from the post office, fill it out, and mail it back with a check. They send your stamps in the mail.

For outgoing mail larger than a standard letter where a regular first class stamp won't work, you take it to the post office. They weigh and measure it and sell you the right postage.

If you leave postage out for the postman, how does the postage get paid?

The same way it gets paid if you put outgoing mail in a public mailbox. I buy a book of stamps - about 16 stamps - a couple times each year. You put the stamp on the envelope before you put it in the mail box.

The US post office does have a "Stamps by Mail" program. You get an order form from the post office, fill it out, and mail it back with a check. They send your stamps in the mail.

For outgoing mail larger than a standard letter where a regular first class stamp won't work, you take it to the post office. They weigh and measure it and sell you the right postage.

We have one of those metered mail things at work. I can't use it for personal postage, but I can go in and ask one of the mail room clerks to tell me how much postage I need on my larger letters/packages. Most of them are nice enough to take it to the post office for anyone who works here as long as you have enough cash for the package an don't abuse the privilege (they have to go everyday any way/the two weeks before Christmas usually is off the table due to time constraints). This has saved me from spending my whole or almost whole lunch hour at the post office. The mail clerks go at non peak hours and can usually get in and out in under 5 minutes.

Logged

Meditate. Live purely. Quiet the mind. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine. ---Gautama Buddah